


When the Dust Clears

by PandaNova



Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Chiba Mamoru/Tsukino Usagi ( implied ), Drabble, Gen, self-care, warning for wounds/bruises
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-01
Updated: 2017-06-01
Packaged: 2018-11-07 14:26:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11060874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PandaNova/pseuds/PandaNova
Summary: short drabble about the after effects of battle, and having to take care of yourself when no one else can.





	When the Dust Clears

The fuku disappears in a blaze of light, leaving Usagi battered, torn. Iron taste on a copper stained lips. She laughs with tears in her eyes as her hands grip theirs. _Together_.

They survived. Every time she feels a wonder in it. Bruised, scraped, and bleeding, but **alive**.

She bravely walks out of the park, her friends breaking off in pairs ━ promising to see each other home. She limps the moment they are out of sight, Luna worriedly guiding her home. She climbs up the trellis to her window, even as her tired body begs for reprieve, her legs screaming and grip weak. She hoists herself over the sill and lands with a thud, face first against the carpet. Luna’s voice a panicked blur as she laughs and sobs all at once, her fingers curled around her torso, guarding something ━ but she doesn’t know what, a sensation that bubbles up her throat as her shoulders shake with an emotion there isn’t a name for.

 **Alive** , it keeps singing through her over and over again, buzzing like fireflies across everything, hiding in the black dots in her periphery. **Alive**.

She undresses slowly, new wounds and old ones coming into view as she sheds the layers of clothes her fuku protects so earnestly. The magic of her own soul projected as armor, each of them fighting with their lives to live. She stares at her naked form in the mirror, pale fingers tracing every wound.

 _Will he still love me with all these bruises?_ She asks selfishly, her underdeveloped body still not lady like enough. Petite and cute, that’s all. How will she ever be everything they need her to be?

The shower takes ages, Usagi’s worn body unwilling to move from the heat - even as it turns her skin pink and makes her head spin, but all she is can see is the blood on Mina’s fingers as she pressed it into Mako’s shoulder, the way Rei hid her right hand, and the bruises on Ami’s throat. How can she complain, looking at their pain? _None of them asked for this._ She sits in front of the mirror, the upended contents of a first aid kit spilled among cosmetics, perfumes, and hair clips. Where a magazine used to sit there’s now several printed pages of DIY tutorials on ‘how to make scars disappear’, ‘ how to make bruises look smaller ‘ and ‘home made creams for soft skin’.

She coats the roughness of her hands, have to keep them soft for Mamo, she tells herself, even as she can feel the callouses she can’t buff away. The indent of the rod where it’s burned her hands. She lovingly covers each wound, caring for them as the moon rises higher in the sky.

Usako knows that in the shrine, and the fine apartment Ami shares with her parents, among the plants of Makoto’s small flat, and Mina’s poster covered room, each of them dress their own wounds with the same loving care. Soft enough for a lover’s hands, strong enough for an enemies blows.

She buffs out the callouses on her heels as she sits on the bed, idly humming even when she knows that unprotected softness will only bring more wounds. She wants to be beautiful, and soft, in a world that won’t let her. So she rips off chunks of armor to keep herself soft, and remind the world she needs to be touched too.

‘ It was a good fight tonight ━ ‘ the girl says to the cat curled close to her side, Luna’s eyes glowing bright in the dim light of her room. She just presses closer, staring at the mirror reflecting them both, the young princess’s body covered in scabs and scars. Usagi knows if she could Luna would take those for her, they all would. The thought makes her sick.

‘ Yes, Usagi, yes it was. ’

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! This was a really self indulgent thing I did for my RP blog, but wanted to share it because I ended up oddly proud of it. I really love the hidden strength Usagi shows.


End file.
